Jazz vocalist Lori Carsillo sounds like she’s smiling when she sings. She has a gorgeous voice, like velvet, with a shivery vibrato. On her new album, Sugar & Smoke, she covers songs that were done four or five decades ago by the likes of Julie London, Tony Bennett, Abbey Lincoln, and Mel Tormé. “They all sort of fall in that sort of 1960s feel. That’s kind of where my head was at. I mean, I love that era, the cocktail ’60s era of jazz. It was such a great time, at least from a music standpoint — and for the clothing, of course.” The Santa Fe Music Collective presents Carsillo in concert on Friday, April 11, at the Museum Hill Café. Joining her are Bert Dalton on piano, Jon Gagan on bass, John Trentacosta on drums, and Arlen Asher on reeds.

As a youngster, Carsillo studied classical music and opera, learned to love jazz standards, and had some exposure to musical theater. “Old Devil Moon,” one of the songs on the new album, is a tribute to her mother, who once sang it in a production of Finian’s Rainbow, according to the liner notes by jazz commentator and author Scott Yanow.

Carsillo, a Bay Area native, began singing with the Menlo-Atherton High School Jazz Band, which performed at the Reno Jazz Festival and even did a European tour, playing the renowned North Sea Jazz Festival in the Netherlands and the Umbria Jazz Festival. She went on to study with singers Kitty Margolis, Madeline Eastman, and Kurt Elling. Her debut album was a standards collection called Bittersweet (2002). That was followed by Cole Porter... Old Love, New Love, True Love (2004) and the children-oriented Lullabies for Little Dreamers (2008). Since the early 2000s, Carsillo has worked her repertoire of jazz standards and less-known songs at Café Claude in San Francisco. She also plays the lounge at Yoshi’s.

For more than a decade, she has been involved in a side project, performing as Lola Bombay in a retro-lounge act called Project: Pimento that has a theremin as lead instrument. The band recorded Magical Moods of the Theremin in 2003 and Space Age Love Songs in 2007. Lola Bombay is “in hiding,” Carsillo joked during a recent interview with Pasatiempo. “No, really, that band is kind of fun; we still play, including for corporate events.” Lola has a special appearance as well as a special appeal. “Yeah, I try to go heavy on the ’60s hair, although I have toned it down a bit in the last few years. I don’t do the long gloves or feather boas anymore. I want to relate to people. I don’t want to be disingenuous and have it be like a real shticky thing, but we still do a lot of fun music, like Mancini and the Star Trek theme and other ’60s TV themes.”

None of the tunes on Sugar & Smoke have appeared on her other discs. What is her process of mining songs? How to choose from the thousands? “I know this has been said before by other people, but I really do feel like the songs choose me. There are just certain songs that just stick in my head, and they’re circling around in there. Some of them are lesser-known, such as ‘Cinnamon & Clove’ and ‘Grass Is Greener’ from the new album. I love doing songs that not everyone has heard.”

The new album will officially be released in late May on Tru Blu Lu. “That’s my independent label. I do it all here. I use a recording studio in San Francisco, but the mastermind work,” she said with a laugh, “happens in my home office.” Several of the songs boast fine piano solos by Adam Shulman. Filling out the rhythm section are Mike Bordelon, bass, and James Gallagher, drums, and there are occasional contributions by vibraphonist Smith Dobson, altoist Riley Bandy, and guitarist Jay Stapleton.

“While my choice of tunes, all of which I love, veered in the direction of the 1960s, my goal was to create modern versions of those songs with a mellow vibe that listeners would enjoy,” she says in the liner notes. Included on the album besides “Cinnamon & Clove,” best-known in a version by Sergio Mendes, and “Grass Is Greener,” a Carsillo fave sung by Blossom Dearie, are “In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning,” which recalls Frank Sinatra, and “Nice Girls Don’t Stay for Breakfast” by Julie London.

In terms of songwriting, Carsillo co-penned the Lullabies for Little Dreamers song “Sleep Little Child” with Stapleton. “I also wrote lyrics to the chords of ‘Boogie Woogie Bossa Nova’ [from reedman Eddie Harris’ 1969 album Free Speech], and I almost included it with this new release. But I had some weird interaction with a lawyer for Eddie Harris’ estate, and I was advised by a lawyer friend to just drop it.”

She has the desire to record a live album, but an initial experiment, at Café Claude, was too noisy. “It’s awfully intimidating, but there’s some really cool stuff that comes out and it’s gone forever, pretty much.” Recording in a studio is a whole different ballgame. “It’s more internal, and you work off the vibe of the musicians. It is hard, because even your placement is different, because you can’t hold the microphone. I guess I just try to go inward. I’ve played many concerts where you may have an audience, but they’re not focused on you, so you just do it. You don’t have to have the feedback.”

Her appearance on April 11 is her third in Santa Fe. It will be “sort of a CD-preview concert” for Sugar & Smoke, although she will sing songs not on the new album as well. It’s easy to expect that a vocalist will channel classic singers onstage, just as an instrumentalist can easily think of Miles Davis, Bill Evans, or John Coltrane. “Occasionally I hear Nancy Wilson, a singer who was one of my early influences. I also have a little Peggy Lee and Julie London in there. I definitely try to do my own thing, but you can’t help it. You hear and you absorb.”

Listing even the highlights from jazz drummer Albert “Tootie” Heath’s recording career would exhaust the column inches available for this review. A shortlist might include sessions with tenor sax titans Dexter Gordon, Sonny Rollins, and John Coltrane. Heath’s latest recording as bandleader — one of only four — is Tootie’s Tempo, with bassist Ben Street and pianist Ethan Iverson (of The Bad Plus). In the album opener, stride pioneer James P. Johnson’s classic “The Charleston,” Heath’s second-line-influenced snare work combines control and chaos. Toward the end, a tight and syncopated drum solo culminates in a rousing all-trio shout chorus. Other tracks, like a relaxed “Stompin’ at the Savoy,” also pay homage to early standards. However, the trio’s version of Paul Motian’s 1985 composition “It Should Have Happened a Long Time Ago” embraces ambience in a decidedly fresh and modern way. The closer is “Tootie’s Tempo” — five minutes of drum solo work that even nondrummers will appreciate. It was originally a full trio take, Iverson explains in the liner notes (perhaps overmodestly): “This isn’t the only track we tried in the studio where Tootie’s sultry lilt outclassed us (or me, at least; Ben usually sounded pretty good) to the point that general release would provoke embarrassment. We decided to salvage this one by simply making it a drum solo.”

SANTA FE REPORTER - JANUARY 22, 2014

History Re-beatingLocal jazzman John Trentacosta is here to school you

By Alex De VoreLet’s get one thing straight right now—John Trentacosta is awesome. The longtime local drummer, public school music teacher, KSFR DJ and now college professor just gets it, Santa Fe. Y’see, as a studied and multi-faceted musician, Trentacosta has not only found success as a session musician and solo artist, but he has dedicated a rather large amount of his time to founding and facilitating fledgling non-profit Santa Fe Music Collective and providing instruction, entertainment and education to music lovers of all ages. It’s kind of like the guy loves jazz and rock so much that he has no choice but to share this love in a profoundly inclusive manner. As we speak, Trentacosta is gearing up for the third session of his Santa Fe Community College class, History of Rock and Roll (Music 135; CRN #30763). He had already been in front of a classroom with the similar History of Jazz class, but this branching out of curriculum and addition of rock history goes a long way toward providing a more intensive experience and education.

Certainly jazz and rock music have deep roots in both blues and African American tradition/history, and Trentacosta’s ability to delve into each area in a separate yet immersive way is huge.

But how does a very vocal proponent of jazz music wind up helming a rock n’ roll class? “The music program at [SFCC] is kind of rolled up into the entire arts department, so encompassed within that is anything from visual art to welding etc.,” Trentacosta says. “So when my department head approached me and said that my jazz class was popular and [sic] would I be able to teach a class on the history of rock, my first thought was, ‘I’m not a rocker, I’m a jazz guy.’ I mean, I grew up with rock and I’ve been drumming since I was 11 years old, but jazz was always my first love.”

Once he decided to indeed teach the class, it became a matter of weaving more than just the stylistic and historical elements of the musicians themselves into a lesson plan. Trentacosta is a selfproclaimed “very political guy,” it was important to examine the sociological aspects of the associated time periods and their cause and effect implications on the music itself.

“Rock is an art form, and like any other form, the things that are going on throughout the world inform the art,” he says. “I realized that everybody has their own tastes and opinions, and if I was going to get them to buy in and contribute I’d have to find a way to make it all relatable to them on a more fundamental level.”

As such, Trentacosta implements author Reebee Garofalo’s 2011 book, Rockin’ Out. It’s a chronological overview of the historical goings on that ran parallel to musical milestones from the invention of the phonograph to the ever-changing landscape of a post-internet musical world.

According to Trentacosta, “The students have to put it all in a context they can relate to and through which they can put together multimedia presentations to the class…we had a guy in the History of Jazz class who traced the history of slavery and its impact on jazz music…it was incredibly wellresearched and fascinating.”

Trentacosta himself is a talented musician best known for his work with local-ish jazz act Straight Up. It’s his working knowledge of the nuts and bolts of music that provides a more in-depth view when it comes the highlights of rock. Should you need proof of Trentacosta’s drumming or musical expertise, he’s taking part in an upcoming perfor mance for the St. John’s College Music on the Hill Elevated series alongside vocalist Kathy Kosins, pianist John Rangel and bassist Andy Zadrozny. All proceeds will benefit the school’s scholarship fund.

In the meantime, think about taking the History of Rock class. Whether you’re a know-it-all with a desire to test your knowledge or even just a vaguely interested party, this is one of the cooler ways to get that college experience.

SFMC JAZZ HISTORY CLASS - LIVE JAZZ WORKSHOP

Last semester, JOHN TRENTACOSTA taught a Jazz History class (MUSC 130.01) at Santa Fe Community College. The semester ended on Tuesday, December 10th and John invited several otherfine musicians to perform a Workshop for this final class. Lucky Students!